@Dannyalcatraz - Well understood. Granular Delay was already on my list, which is why I got the Charlie Foxtrot. I also got it because it was more compact and less expensive than the other pedals I was looking at, like the Red Panda Particle Delay. Still, the wealth of functions in the Mood pedal help justify the high price.

@Mark Schmieder - Glad you got that worked out. Let us know when you explore some of the other features, I may have to get one, too!

@Caevan - While the Slow Attack effect is something that can easily be managed with an Analog circuit, my Malekko Sneak Attack is also digital. Malekko recently developed or acquired - I'm not sure which - a new DSP, which is the driving force behind the Sneak Attack, Charlie Foxtrot and Scrutator pedals. Not really surprising when you consider that one DSP chip in a MFX gives us a whole library of FX types and functions.

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

@Larryz - Thank you, brother, looking forward to it, wish we could meet up somewhere in the middle! Kansas City BBQ sound good to you?

In the meantime, I found something I had been looking for, at a stupid GC Used Gear price that I couldn't pass it up. I'd been wanting a Malekko Scrutator for a while now, and seeing them for $140-160 in the Used Gear listings. Too close to new price for me, once you add in tax & shipping, and I'd already picked up some pedals recently, so I'd been holding off.

Yesterday, I saw one listed for $110 in Excellent Condition at a nearby GC, so I was tempted, but decided to wait on it. This morning, when I looked online again, it had been knocked down to $100?!?!? I figured I was already saving $50-70, plus I didn't have to wait a week for it to get here, so I went and got it, dropped it off at home, then went about my day of gardening work. I'll have time to really dig in tomorrow.

BTW, it really is in excellent condition! No marks, no dings, no Velcro, not even any dust from the display case. IDK . . .

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

Just out of curiosity, do you ever shop eBay or Reverb? I do, and I’ve found some good deals on them. (Plus other sites as well, depending on what you’re looking for,)

I tend to stick with GC and my FLUMS, because I want to have a brick-&-mortar store to return something, if it isn't right. The folks at my FLUMS have known me for a long time, so they always give me a good deal, and I like supporting them. OTOH, my nearby GC's often have their Used Gear at prices too low to pass up, like that Scrutator.

An even more absurd example - Earlier in the week, while looking for a power brick, I'd come across a Ghost Fire pedalboard (Chinese-made Pedaltrain clone) with a PP2+ mounted underneath, and all the cables for the PP2+, in a gig bag, for $39.99!?!?! On the same page, there was a PP2+ by itself, for $99. $39.99 might have been a fair price for the pedalboard alone, but with the PP2+? Didn't really need the pedalboard, but since I was looking for a spare power brick, once again, I couldn't see passing it up at $55 with tax and shipping. My plan is to keep the power brick, sell or trade the pedalboard, and come out having spent little or nothing for the power brick. My wife calls it "working the system."

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

Lot of discussion in other Gear forums about it. Part of the discussion is "Tube Screamer or not Tube Screamer?" Intentionally ambiguous ad and industry copy from EQD, coupled with the low price point, seem intended to boost sales from the merely curious. (It's the least expensive EQD pedal on the market. Even their bare-bones, no-knobs Tentacles Octave Up pedal is $130.)

Obvious Pro Tube Screamer point: It's a green 3-knob OD for $100

Less obvious Anti-TS point: It doesn't use the classic components?

Decide for yourselves. FWIW, there are other demo videos, where it sounds very different with different Guitar-&-Amp combos.

My one complaint with all the demo videos I see, particularly for Dirt pedals, is that everyone is plugged into an Amp that's already just on the edge of distortion!?!?! I tend to run my Amp clean, and add Drive with Drive pedals. Is that so wrong?

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

Lot of discussion in other Gear forums about it. Part of the discussion is "Tube Screamer or not Tube Screamer?" Intentionally ambiguous ad and industry copy from EQD, coupled with the low price point, seem intended to boost sales from the merely curious. (It's the least expensive EQD pedal on the market. Even their bare-bones, no-knobs Tentacles Octave Up pedal is $130.)

Obvious Pro Tube Screamer point: It's a green 3-knob OD for $100

Less obvious Anti-TS point: It doesn't use the classic components?

I'd say- judging from video examples and descriptions- that it's very TS based, very much an enhanced, expanded variation on that TS theme, and even improved upon the more typical TS's and their numerous clones and variations. It's pretty versatile as such overdrives and boosts go. It seems to sound clearer and more dynamic, with better definition. So, not just another TS derivative "clone".

The price is not bad at all. And it's relatively small.

If I needed anything remotely TS like, I'd definitely have the Plumes on my list of pedals to scope out. As it is, though, I don't think that it brings anything that I can't coax the most of out of, say, my Fulltone Full-Drive 3, which is a considerably larger pedal, though it also has more features, and good ones, at that- for as little as about $23 and change more than the Plumes.

By the way- any idea on why the 'Plumes' moniker? Any particular meaning, allusion or association there?

Originally Posted by Winston Psmith

My one complaint with all the demo videos I see, particularly for Dirt pedals, is that everyone is plugged into an Amp that's already just on the edge of distortion!?!?! I tend to run my Amp clean, and add Drive with Drive pedals. Is that so wrong?

I know what you mean, Winston. It would give a much better idea of just what such a pedal sounds like if run into a tight, clean, clear amp with a lot of headroom. Though I do tend to run such pedalry into a tube-amp that's dialed-up to give me clean to overdrive to distortion as I roll my guitar's volume up and down and vary my "touch".

@Caevan - No idea about the name? They already make a sort of Super-808 clone called the Palisades, and a smaller version of it called the Dunes? OTOH, EQD seem to enjoy picking odd names for their pedals.

I was intrigued by the low price and the conflicting promo copy from EQD, but having heard it, I don't hear anything I'm not going to get from my Walrus Warhorn.

@Dannyalcatraz - The cranked Amp issue really bothers me. Like you, I test a new pedal by plugging into an Amp on a clean setting, particularly a new Dirt pedal. Almost anything is going to sound fat and warm through a hot Tube Amp.

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

...having heard it, I don't hear anything I'm not going to get from my Walrus Warhorn.

I thought of your Warrhorn overdrive-pedal, as well; I forgot to mention that above...

Originally Posted by Winston Psmith

@Dannyalcatraz - The cranked Amp issue really bothers me. Like you, I test a new pedal by plugging into an Amp on a clean setting, particularly a new Dirt pedal. Almost anything is going to soundfat and warm through a hot Tube Amp.

Here's to that! That is, while I will initially test-drive a pedal "in isolation on a clean amp at low to moderate volume", once passing that muster, I proceed directly to further evaluation and experimentation with, before or after, an overdriven/distorted tube-amp and/or overdrive/distortion/fuzz/octave-fuzz pedals. I absolutely LOVE the way that can so fatten and warm things up! Then come forays of feedback, from subtle shades of harmonic-overtones to singing notes through to sirens, screams and torrential squalls... But I digress.

My one complaint with all the demo videos I see, particularly for Dirt pedals, is that everyone is plugged into an Amp that's already just on the edge of distortion!?!?! I tend to run my Amp clean, and add Drive with Drive pedals. Is that so wrong?

Same thing with guitar demos. An overdriven tone tells me zero about the guitar's inherent sound, & everything about some pedal that I 100% for sure do not have in my collection. The only guitar demo which imparts any useful information to me is hearing absolutely clean tones through a clean amp. Big pet peeve of mine.

Some lead players like that distorted or at least overdriven sound on full time with their amp and never go back to full on clean. For me, I like it clean and then you can always add dirt (and even more dirt), and be able to go back to clean. Having an amp and pedal in the dirt modes messes up a good clean rhythm guitar sound when playing chords IMHO. Metal guys can get by with 5 chords but that's about it using dirt. When looking at demos or using the pedals, I like to see what the pedal can do when it is stomped in and what the amp can sound like without it. One thing l like about using good dirt pedals, is that you can add OD and Distortion at low volume levels with less noise.